Mulder and The Spider
by zebrastripes88
Summary: Mulder encounters a "special" spider. A slightly comical one-shot. Rated T for some language.


Hey guys, this is my first X Files fan fic, so hopefully I did an okay job. This story kind of came to me today and I just felt the inspiration to write it. Leave a review if you feel so inclined.

* * *

Fox Mulder sat on the couch in his living room watching TV, flipping back and forth between the local news and an episode of Forensic Files. It was after 11pm and although he was tired, he could already feel it would be another restless night for him.

The case he and Scully had been working on earlier today had ended abruptly, leaving lots of questions that were rushing through his mind. The suspect had been stupidly killed by a police officer who was working one of his very first cases. Mulder had intended on interrogating the suspect; he had had a lot of questions for her. He might eventually come back to the case, but Skinner had already had leads on a new case and Mulder and Scully were headed to Michigan tomorrow morning, bright and early.

He glanced at the phone across the room. Scully was probably already asleep, but talking to her, hearing her voice, would often help him sleep. Not that her voice was boring, but the sound of it calmed him down. He decided to risk it, and walked over to dial her number. He, of course, had speed dial, but he was too lazy to set it up.

"Hello?" a sleepy Scully answered.

Mulder instantly felt guilty. "Hey Scully," he said hesitantly.

"Mulder, what the hell is it?" she asked.

"I can't sleep," he cut to the chase.

"So you thought you'd disturb mine?" Mulder could just see Scully rolling her eyes.

"You're right, I shouldn't have called," he began, and then, looking up at the wall above him, he noticed an especially large spider, its beady eyes staring at him. "Oh shit!"

"Mulder, what is it?" Scully asked, more awake now.

"It's a spider Scully, there's a freaking spider. It's staring at me!"

Scully chuckled. "Why don't you just kill it?"

"I can't," Mulder whispered.

"Mulder, can you hear yourself? Are you actually scared of that spider?"

"It knows. It knows I want to kill it."

"Mulder, spiders don't have that kind of instinct. He is probably just waiting for a fly to fly out of your kitchen so he can have his dinner."

"It's staring at me. It's trying to tell me something."

"Mulder, I think this is all just simply your fear of spiders playing out, making you think this spider is somehow "communicating" to you. But I promise you, it isn't."

Mulder knew he wouldn't be able to convince Scully on this one. "Maybe you're right," he said halfheartedly.

"I know I am. Good night Mulder," she said, hanging up immediately.

Mulder placed the phone down quietly and continued to look at the spider. And that's when he heard it. A slight whispering sound. He couldn't distinquish the words, but he knew that the spider was whispering to him. He sat and waited, hoping the spider would say something else.

" _Save her_ ," was what it sounded like the spider was saying when it whispered again. " _Save her_ ," it repeated.

"Save who?" he asked aloud.

" _Save her_!" the whisper sounded more like a hiss now. The spider began to crawl down the wall quickly. Mulder watched in fascination as it skittered across the couch and then perched itself on his phone. It didn't say anything else. It just sat on the phone, staring at Mulder.

Mulder sighed, got up, and grabbed his keys and cell phone from his kitchen table. As he walked to his car, he was wondering if he was making a mistake, but if he wasn't, then he could end up regretting it later.

The ten minute drive to Scully's apartment seemed longer than it normally was. When he finally arrived, he came into the building, climbed the stairs, and walked to her front door. He considered just letting himself in with his key, but he knew Scully would freak out so he started knocking on the door. There was no answer. Sighing loudly, he rang the doorbell. The door opened quickly, Scully standing there with a pissed off look on her face, her robe loosely tied, and her hair was extremely frizzy.

Without saying a word, she ushered him in. Mulder sheepishly sat down on her couch, cracking his knuckles.

"You're in danger," he announced quietly.

Her arms were crossed. "You know Mulder, I really don't think I am."

"I have to protect you," Mulder continued.

"From what? Is there a spider here too that I know nothing about?"

"I don't know what it is, but the spider told me I had to save you."

"The _spider_ told you?"

"I know it sounds crazy but…"

"But what Mulder? But what? You know, I may have seen some of these supernatural sightings, happenings, whatever they are, over the years we've worked together. We have worked many a case where I didn't fully understand what or how it happened. Your honesty, your passion, it's what has kept me interested along with you. You have some crazy beliefs at times. I often doubt you. But because I care about you and because you are often correct, I dismiss the craziness. But tonight Mulder, you have completely lost your damn mind!"

"I understand your hesitancy," he began. "But I have to go with my gut instinct. The spider was correct. I don't know how or what gave him the ability to speak to me, but he did. And I care too much about you to let something happen."

"Fine, whatever," she sighed angrily. "Sleep on the couch, just leave me alone and let me get some sleep!"

Mulder felt slightly better, but he decided he needed to thoroughly look over her apartment if he wanted to even attempt at sleeping. Scully didn't even say anything when Mulder got up from the couch and walked over to her entryway closet, looking behind the coats that were neatly hung up. She simply rolled her eyes and walked toward her bedroom. Mulder followed her and quickly looked under her bed, peeked in her closet, and walked in her bathroom.

"Satisfied?" she asked.

"Yep," Mulder replied and he quietly closed her door behind him as he made his way to her guest bedroom. There was nothing unusual in there as well.

Maybe he really was losing his mind. His lack of sleep was finally catching up to him after all these years. He peeled off his sweatshirt and took off his jeans, throwing them on the living room floor. He grabbed an afghan that was draped over the back of the couch and put it over himself. The slight hum he could hear from the fan she used in her room lulled him to sleep.

Suddenly, he woke up to the sound of someone at the door. Someone was rattling the knob, trying to get in. Mulder reached for his weapon in the holster of his jeans that were laying on the ground. Standing up, he waited for the intruder to come in.

"FBI! I'm armed!" he said sleepily, pointing the gun at the intruder.

The intruder was a tall man with a black hoodie sweatshirt, glasses, and a long beard. He seemed to pay no attention to Mulder and continued to walk in.

"Stand still or I'll shoot!" Mulder threatened.

The man seemed to be in a trance. He was walking straight towards Mulder. Mulder had no other option than to shoot the man. He fell down and a startled Scully walked out of her room, forgoing her robe, wearing just a short nightgown.

"What the hell Mulder?" she ran over to him, looking back and forth from Mulder, to the man, and back at Mulder.

"He just walked in and wouldn't stop. I had to shoot him," Mulder said soberly.

"And you knew this would happen," Scully was dumbfounded.

"Not this exactly, but yeah," Mulder said quietly.

The spider, like he had stated earlier, had been correct. The two partners just looked at each other, both completely mystified.


End file.
